We have individually reviewed Pop-up plugins that work best with your WordPress installation. However, their features might be an overkill especially if you only have a specific need in mind. Here we will do a quick mini-review for various alternatives you can use. They all work with WordPress and some of them are even free, so have a look!
InstantSlideUp
InstantSlideUp is a unique solution where instead of a plain pop-up, you show information on a “SlideUp”, which is basically a special bar at the bottom of your page, displaying whatever you want in it (including opt-in forms):
Click the Image to See Full Version
There are plenty of different uses they offer: Static, Opt-in and Carousel SlideUp. They offer many pre-made themes as well, 25 for the free version and 55 themes for the Premium version. The Premium version is $14.95 /month while the Free version is, well, free.
Ultimate Footer Ad
This is similar to InstantSlideUp. It slides a small strip up from the bottom of your browser. You can use it to capture email subscribers, as well as convert visitors to RSS subscribers or twitter followers. It doesn’t annoy your visitors by stopping them from reading your valuable content. And even thought it’s not exactly a WordPress plugin, it’s very easy to use.
Action Popup
This is a very specific plugin, in the sense that it only shows exit pop-ups. The pop-ups are unblockable, adjustable to be shown only for certain visitors (for example, those who have stayed for longer than 30 seconds). You can input what kind of message you want to display, and also configure to what URL you want to send your visitors to. The plugin is available for free.
WP-Announcements
WP-Announcements is a plugin that shows any kind of announcements: site-wide notifications, ads, alerts, you name it. It’s a little nifty plug-in, you choose a WordPress post as the content of the pop-up and then you can show it on a lightbox pop-up. It can be great because with the WordPress Visual Editor you can style your pop-up content in many ways, although it can be difficult if you want to show forms. The plugin is free and available both for WordPress and WordPress MU.
WPopup!
WPopup! is a free, unblockable pop-up plugin for WordPress. It shows a HTML pop-up in a specific way: you write a shortcode plus the content of your pop-up directly into your Post or Page. It’s also possible to display the pop-up everywhere on your blog, but you will have to edit your theme file manually, which might not be easy for beginners. It’s free, but there’s also a Pro version that costs 19.95 EUR. The Pro version allows you to have pop-ups with different configurations and stylings in one website.
MaxBlogPress Unblockable Popup
MaxBlogPress Unblockable Popup plugin is quite a powerful alternative with features that match some of the more advanced plugins. It has its own editor for your pop-up content, you can set the frequency of the pop-up, tweak its basic stylings, and it even has a few visual effects ready (Simple, Fading or Lightbox). It does not have built-in support for common e-mail list solution, though, and the display is rather simplistic:
MaxBlogPress Popup Plugin is a Reviewware, where you are expected (although not outright required) to write a review for the plugin is you use it. It also requires a one time, free registration before you can download it.
Auto Thickbox
Finally, this is the plugin solution if you only want to use pop-ups for image thumbnailing purposes. It uses WordPress’ built-in Thickbox support to allow thumbnails. With WP you can upload an image and it will create the tumbnails for you. The plugin will then scan for these images and apply the Thickbox automatically. Auto Thickbox will also show next/previous link to other images in your WordPress gallery if you have any. Additionally, you can use this plugin to Thickbox any kind of content by adding a ‘thickbox’ class to any link. The plugin is free.
